Every English victory in Paris has its own distinctive perfume and this was as sweet-smelling as any. Never before have England won three away games in the same Six Nations season and never has an English flanker scored a try as blindingly good as Tom Croft's match-winning effort with nine minutes remaining. If it is unlikely to earn Stuart Lancaster's team the title ahead of the unbeaten Welsh, a remarkable Sunday afternoon's work will do wonders for the coach's job prospects and for red rose belief in general.

For those who stubbornly see no merit in appointing Lancaster permanently this was a nightmarish outcome. Not only did England score three tries against a team who were World Cup finalists five months ago but the contrast with the disgruntled crew who flew home early from New Zealand was starker than ever.

Where France look stale and disjointed, England were fresh and relentlessly committed. This may have been Les Bleus at their infuriating worst but no one has beaten them in a Six Nations game in Saint Denis for four years. Had the hosts sneaked home at the end, it would have been a travesty.

Croft, Ben Morgan, Geoff Parling and Dan Cole all enjoyed their best games for their country, with Croft's performance rivalling his prodigious efforts for the British and Irish Lions in South Africa in 2009.

The sidestep, awareness and acceleration over 30 metres displayed by the lanky Leicester forward for his try would have been spectacular enough had he not already spent the previous 72 minutes soaring in the lineout and tackling everything within reach.

In sitting-rooms up and down the land, it was easy to imagine the English rugby public roaring him home like a slightly premature Cheltenham Festival winner.

Yes, France were rubbish, their desperate first-half effort putting the dim into Dimanche.

Yes, Philippe Saint-André's decision to install Julien Dupuy and Lionel Beauxis as his half-back pairing was a total failure. But, lest it be forgotten, England had eight players in their starting XV with four caps or fewer.

Morgan, another colossus, was still being courted by Wales as recently as January but again showed what an asset he is becoming. The English scrum were slaughtered in the corresponding fixture two years ago; this time the youthful front row of Cole, Dylan Hartley and Alex Corbisiero finished in the ascendancy. It is amazing what a difference it makes when everyone is pulling – and pushing – in the same direction.

And so it was that those predicting a kick-fest found themselves glued to a chaotic, madcap romp.

France began like wheezing camels, allowing the visitors early momentum. A tail-end leap by Croft and a sharp break by Lee Dickson caused a flurry of instant defensive alarm and, after a brief period of anxiety at the other end, England had two tries on the board inside the first quarter.

The first owed much to Chris Ashton's big tackle on Dimitri Szarzewski, who threw a hasty offload towards the left touchline. Owen Farrell was first to it and his quick offload to Dickson allowed the scrum-half to release Manu Tuilagi and the Leicester centre had sufficient pace and power over 50 metres to make it beyond Aurélien Rougerie's desperate tackle to dive over in the corner.

Within five minutes, extraordinarily, England had a second. This time it was Morgan who burst through the defensive line around halfway, brushing past three would-be tacklers before a nifty cat-flap offload gave Ben Foden just enough of a head start to beat Vincent Clerc to the line.

Farrell's conversion made it 14-3, almost the precise opposite of the World Cup quarter-final in Auckland when France were handed a 16-0 lead. It might have been even more had Farrell not seen a 27th-minute penalty bounce back off an upright.

France were playing in ones and twos, the crowd almost too disillusioned to give them the bird. Had Clément Poitrenaud not nipped in just ahead of Charlie Sharples, chasing Ashton's rolling grubber kick, the contest would have been over by half-time. Le Crunch? At times France were about as robust as a stick of celery. Maybe England relaxed a little, too. Tiny errors crept in, the standard of Farrell's kicking out of hand began to dip and France enjoyed a little more field position.

The visitors also reckoned without the referee Alain Rolland's efforts to even up the contest. Croft should not have remonstrated with Rougerie after Foden was floored a split-second after calling for a mark but it was a harsh decision to award a penalty which Dupuy duly kicked.

The 52nd-minute sin-binning of Sharples for a supposed deliberate knockdown was equally marginal, Wesley Fofana having stayed on for a similar offence not long previously.

England, though, held firm in his absence and tackled bravely to the last.

Phil Dowson put in a sensational try-saving tackle and was knocked out by Fofana's boot but Croft's career-defining score seemed to have taken the game beyond the hosts.

Fofana's sharp score banished such complacency and, with a minute left, François Trinh-Duc could be found deep in the pocket with a drop-goal chance to nick it. It fell short, leaving the Rugby Football Union to contemplate its options afresh. Surely it will now do the decent thing.